2004 Winners of the Dalton Camp Award

Democracy as dialogue: how the media influence Canadian democracy

By Danielle Devereaux

"To respect the limits of discourse is to avoid the authoritarian
claim that 'we got it right'; it is to keep different forms of
conversation going, to preserve the lack of closure that democracy
requires." Catriona Sandilands, The Good-Natured Feminist

Since the US invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, almost 800 US soldiers
have died. According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 82% have
died since May 2, 2003; the day after US President George Bush
announced that the war was over. On March 14, 2004, almost a year after
the US-led invasion of Iraq began, a group of anti-war protesters
gathered outside the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Who are these
peaceniks? Many are relatives of soldiers who have been killed in the
Iraq war, others have sons, daughters or partners serving in Iraq and
they want their loved ones brought home "alive. According to Agence
France-Presse, the Dover Air Force Base houses the US military's
largest mortuary; this is where young men and women come home in body
bags.

The US government claimed an invasion of Iraq was necessary because
Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction were a threat to the
American people. They have captured Hussein, but they have yet to find
weapons of mass destruction, other than the ones the US military relies
on. "Bush lies and who dies?" asked Fernando Suarez del Solar in an
interview with Agence France Presse at the March 14th rally. "My son,
Jesus Suarez del Solar Navarro" "killed in Iraq, March 27, 2003.

In a statement released March 11, the main organizers of the protest at Dover, Military Families Speak Out,
said their march was "a Memorial Procession for Mourning and Truth to
pull back the veil, honour and mourn the dead and acknowledge the
wounded "both US military personnel and the tens of thousands of Iraqi
casualties." They called on the Bush administration to "start telling
the truth, [and] stop hiding the toll."

Is the Bush administration hiding its war dead? Historically,
honouring a country's fallen soldiers has been seen as an opportunity
to rally patriotism. Patriotically speaking, the solemn grandeur of
military ceremonies carries a lot of weight. Yet in the October 21,
2003 edition of the Washington Post, Dana Milbank reported on a
directive handed down by the US government stating, "There will be no
arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military
personnel returning to or departing from Ramstein [Germany] airbase or
Dover [Del.] base, to include interim stops". This media ban was
ordered the same day the US invaded Iraq.

This is an invasion Canada did not support. Canadian troops are not
serving in the Iraq war; what then, does a protest in Delaware have to
do with the media's influence on Canadian democracy? Canadian soldiers
may not be in Iraq, but they are dying. Compare the media ban
prohibiting the filming of caskets coming off military planes in the
US, to Canada's media coverage of Canadian soldiers killed on
peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan; the "no arrival ceremonies"
homecoming of Marine Lance Corporal Jesus Suarez del Solar Navarro, to
the honour guard that stood waiting on the tarmac for the homecoming of
Corporal Jamie Murphy.

A suicide bomber killed Corporal Jamie Murphy, a young man from
Conception Harbour, Newfoundland, on January 27, 2004. The media
coverage of this tragedy, on a national and local level, was extensive.
Our media did not shut off the cameras as his remains were returned to
Canadian soil. News of his death and life were everywhere "from
national newspapers, television and radio stations, to community and
university media outlets. Does this mean that as a country we treat our
fallen soldiers with greater respect? I'm not sure, but I am certain
that the difference between Jamie Murphy's homecoming and Jesus Suarez
del Solar Navarro's homecoming, does have something to do with
democracy.

Glenn Deir interviewed Jamie Murphy's family for CBC Television's evening newscast Canada Now.
The interview is extremely difficult to watch. Partway through a broken
Norman Murphy, Jamie's father, leaves. As the interview continues,
Jamie's sisters and mother remember Jamie as a loving, wonderful young
man; they also question whether or not Canadian troops should be in
Afghanistan. Jamie's mother, Alice Murphy, tells Deir, "They shouldn't
be over there. I always said they shouldn't be over there." Norma
Murphy, Jamie's sister, asks, "What's the sense of it?" As long as
they're over there they're going to be dying ... he won't be the last
one."

This question "what is the sense of it? "was further debated in
the media, at least in Newfoundland and Labrador, when residents of the
province were invited to call in to a special CBC Radio open line show
to talk about Jamie's death and the Murphy family's television
interview.

Should Canada be in Afghanistan? I'm not sure. The media plays an
important role for Canadian democracy not because it can answer this
question, but because it can facilitate the debate. There is a media
ban on US military bases for a reason. Flag-draped caskets invite
questions, conversations and debate. Debates are dangerous, they bring
with them possibility "the possibility that the American public may
well decide, as many already have, that the US should not be in Iraq;
that Canadians may well decide that Canada should not be in
Afghanistan.

Both sides of the story "objective journalism?

Media counts; it is also produced. To claim that any media is
objective yes "even Canadian media "is problematic. The camera is
turned on some stories, not on others. Even attempts to show "˜both
sides of the story' are impossible "when are there ever only two sides
to a story? Jamie Murphy loved his work but looked forward to coming
home, his family were proud of him but do not think he should have been
in Afghanistan, Jamie's death was the doing of a suicide bomber who
clearly did not want Canadian Peacekeepers in the country, yet many
Afghanis do want Canadian Peacekeepers in their country and wish help
had arrived years ago.

And even as we get to know and mourn Jamie Murphy the son, brother,
friend and lover, even as we glimpse the many complex sides that come
with his story, we know nothing, not even the name, of the Afghan
civilian who died in the same blast that killed Jamie. Mention of his
or her death disappears after the first few reports. In the weeks that
followed Jamie Murphy's death, everywhere I went people were talking
about him, his family, their grief, the Canadian Peacekeeping Mission
in Afghanistan. What we see and hear in the media shapes and frames
what we think and talk about; what we do not see or hear is just as
important. Consider the following example: according to DATA, an
organization working to eliminate debt, AIDS and unfair trade practices
in Africa, 6500 people die of AIDS in Africa every day. Imagine if
every night, every newscaster across the world sat down and said, "And
today 6,500 men, women and children died of AIDS in Africa... And again
today 6,500 people died of AIDS in Africa" And again today...." How
would our conversations change? How would our world change?

All news all the time?

Of course the news is not our only media source and despite the
availability of "˜all news all the time' channels, the news actually
forms a small part of the media we consume. Advertising, sitcoms,
reality TV, cartoons, music, movies, video games, fashion magazines,
the Internet "the media has become our society's main storyteller, at
least in North America. In Advertising and the End of the World,
cultural theorist Sut Jhally defines culture "as the stories we tell
ourselves about ourselves." These stories shape the way we behave, our
values, our desires, even our identities; as storyteller, the media
plays a powerful social role.

What stories do our media systems tell? When tied to commercial
profit and corporate power, dissenting voices are jeopardized. Consider
the television programme Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, cancelled in
1998, not because of low viewer numbers, it was actually number one in
its timeslot, but because its fans "older, rural viewers "were not
the kind of audience that attract advertisers (Kilbourne 35). Now this
is not problematic because Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman is a great
show, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but because while a media ban like
the one imposed by US President George Bush is quite visible "obviously the government is censoring the media here "corporate
pressures of the type that pulled Dr. Quinn off the air often go unnoticed.

Many of us are under the impression that the programmes we watch are
on television because these are the kinds of programmes we want to
watch. Dr. Quinn illustrates that this is not always the case.
Yes we have hundreds of channels, but how much choice do we really have
when the types of shows we view are dictated by advertising and
corporate desires? As a television programme, Dr. Quinn is an
example of a dissenting voice, dissenting because it did not, or
perhaps could not, perpetuate the kind of consumer culture advertisers
rely on.

It is important to recognize the role this consumer culture plays in
our society. When our media systems rely on advertising for survival,
as most of them do, the stories they tell are often limited to stories
that speak to us as consumers, not as citizens. As consumers, our only
obligation is to participate in the market economy; participation in
society is irrelevant. Societal problems "world affairs, the
environment, poverty, war "are not our problems. But this is not true.
War in Iraq, life and death in Afghanistan "even when we are safe in
our homes on the island of Newfoundland, they are our stories.

Shortly after the CBC Television interview with Corporal Murphy's
family aired, the local CBC Radio station in St. John's interviewed an
Afghan Newfoundlander. Ajmal Pashtoonyar gently disagreed with Norma
Murphy's assertion that Afghanis do not want Canadians in their
country. Pashtoonyar was adamant that Afghanis do want and need
Canadian Peacekeepers in their war-torn country; that indeed the
Afghani people had wanted and needed help for years, and were grateful
that it had finally arrived. When asked if he had a message for
Corporal Murphy's family, the young man grieved for Jamie, and assured
the Murphy family that his death was not in vain. I think this
"˜conversation' between Norma Murphy and Ajmal Pashtoonyar is an example
of what the media's influence on Canadian democracy can be. Do I think
Canadian Peacekeepers should be in Afghanistan? Maybe. Yes or no, my
answer is not what is most important here, what is most important is
that I am invited to think about it.

Whether we are talking about the tragic stories of Corporal Jamie
Murphy, his family, and the place of Canadian Peacekeepers in
Afghanistan, or simply the fictional stories created around programmes
like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, as storyteller the media spends
a lot of time talking to us. If our media systems are to contribute to
Canadian democracy, it is essential that we be allowed to talk, or at
least think back. Thinking back, talking back, conversing, makes us, as
part of the audience, part of the storytelling "and that's a pretty
good description of democracy.

Works Cited

Advertising and the End of the World. Writ./Prod. Sut Jhally. Northampton: Media Education Foundation, 1998.